Cross Country at the Top Colleges

For both men and women, cross country is one of the most popular sports played in the NCAA at the highly selective colleges. Overall, 56 of the 61 highly selective colleges have men’s cross country teams and 60 of the 61 highly selective colleges have women’s cross country teams with a total of 2,604 cross country runners across both genders.

Of the 56 colleges with men’s cross country, 27 of them belong in Division 1 with 623 runners and 29 of them belong in Division 3 with 713 runners, totaling 1,336 runners altogether in the 2021/2022 season.

Of the 60 colleges with women’s cross country, 30 of them belong in Division 1 with total of 651 runners, and the remaining 30 colleges belong in Division 3 with a total of 617 runners, together making a total of 1,268 runners in the 2021/2022 season.

Cross Country NCAA Rules and Calendar for Athlete Recruitment

How do top colleges in Division 1 select their athlete recruits?

Athlete Recruitment to a Top NCAA Division 3 College

List of Highly Selective Colleges with Cross Country Teams

Below is a list of the top colleges with cross country teams the NCAA Division they belong in.

All data is compiled directly from the colleges’ athletic websites

Cross Country at Highly Selective Colleges
Men's Women's
DivisionCross CountryCross Country
Amherst CollegeIIIYesYes
Babson CollegeIIIYesYes
Barnard College (comb w/ Columbia University)I No Yes
Bates CollegeIIIYesYes
Boston CollegeIYesYes
Boston UniversityIYesYes
Bowdoin CollegeIIIYesYes
Brown UniversityIYesYes
California Institute of Technology IIIYesYes
Carleton CollegeIIIYesYes
Carnegie Mellon University IIIYesYes
Claremont McKenna College (incl Harvey Mudd)IIIYesYes
Colby College IIIYesYes
Colgate University IYesYes
Colorado CollegeIIIYesYes
Columbia University (incl Barnard College)IYesYes
Cornell UniversityIYesYes
Dartmouth CollegeIYesYes
Davidson CollegeIYesYes
Duke UniversityIYesYes
Emory UniversityIIIYesYes
Georgia Institute of TechnologyIYesYes
Grinnell College IIIYesYes
Hamilton CollegeIIIYesYes
Harvard UniversityIYesYes
Harvey Mudd College (comb w/Claremont McKenna)IIIYesYes
Haverford CollegeIIIYesYes
John Hopkins University IIIYesYes
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyIIIYesYes
Middleburry CollegeIIIYesYes
Northeastern UniversityIYesYes
Northwestern University INoYes
New York UniversityIIIYesYes
Pitzer College IIIYesYes
Pomona College IIIYesYes
Princeton University IYesYes
Rice University IYesYes
Stanford University IYesYes
Swarthmore College IIIYesYes
Tufts University IIIYesYes
Tulane University IYesYes
University of California BerkeleyIYesYes
University of California Los AngelesIYesYes
University of Michigan IYesYes
University of Chicago IIIYesYes
University of North Carolina - Chapel HillI YesYes
University of Notre Dame IYesYes
University of Pennsylvania IYesYes
University of Southern California INoYes
University of Virginia IYesYes
Vanderbilt University IYesYes
Vassar College IIIYesYes
Villanova UniversityIYesYes
Wake Forest UniversityIYesYes
Washington and Lee University IIIYesYes
Washington University in St. LouisIIIYesYes
Wellesley College III No Yes
Wesleyan UniversityIII Yes Yes
Williams CollegeIIIYesYes
Yale University IYesYes
Total Runners1,3361,268

Watch out for the latest on

  • How to get recruited to the cross country team at a top college?

  • Cross country team profiles at the top colleges


Alex Irvine

Alex Irvine is a Product Development Associate and author for X Factor Admissions. He is a current UCLA junior who is majoring in history and has extensive personal experience in the college admissions process.

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